Digital image capture devices, such as digital cameras or camera phones, are ubiquitous. However, billions of digital photographs are “trapped” each year on cameras or personal computers as consumers struggle to share those photos with others. Some web sites have become available to allow users to share their photos, such as Flickr, Picasa, Kodak Gallery, and so forth. These sites, however, require a user to take a set of photos, download them to a personal computer, upload them to a photo-sharing web site, and then provide a notification (such as an email) and authorization for third parties to access and view those photos.
Backwards compatible Secured Digital Input/Output cards (SDIO cards) are now available to help in the photo-sharing process. For example, the Eye-Fi card is an SDIO card that includes semiconductor memory and an IEEE802.11 radio. The card may be inserted into a camera, where images taken by the camera are stored on the card. The radio on the card then allows the user to wirelessly transmit these images to a user's personal computer or web site.
One problem with such a card is that it may be difficult to implement, particularly for users very inexperienced with computers or digital equipment. Further, a user must ensure that her digital camera can accept a particular memory card. Moreover, the user must have a personal computer and be sufficiently knowledgeable in use of that computer in order to use the card. Thus, the ability to serve a variety of people or equipment, tag images, or otherwise manage images is needed.
Another problem is that users often wish to “tag” their images or associate images with certain metadata. It has become popular to store media such as digital images on the web together with user-generated metadata that aid in their discoverability. This metadata, commonly referred to as ‘tags’, can represent aspects that classify the media by arbitrary representations (e.g. rain, yellow, mountain, Seattle) or serve to record the identities of those present in the media. In the case of images, this can help in pinpointing the area of the image in which the named person is present. Such metadata or tags can help the user organize or locate images, or to share images with others. Further, such metadata can be used by third parties, such as for targeting advertising. Diligent tagging of media within a social web context creates significant benefits for the community as a whole, greatly enhances media discoverability, and provides the capability to share media and cluster related content.
Drawback is that the process of tagging is labor intensive and inaccurate, with the responsibility lying either solely with the person who uploaded the media or distributed across a broader part of the online community. Moreover many instances of visual media (photos and movies) contain only a partially tagged set of the people or objects present in the frame due to the inability or unwillingness of the person who uploaded the media, and the community that has reviewed it, to identify all persons or objects present. This is particularly true of large group shots or shots containing passersby.
The need exists for a system that overcomes the above problems, as well as one that provides additional benefits. Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systems and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the claimed invention.
In the drawings, the same reference numbers and any acronyms identify elements or acts with the same or similar structure or functionality for ease of understanding and convenience. To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the Figure number in which that element is first introduced (e.g., element 204 is first introduced and discussed with respect to FIG. 2).